To fuck or to cook?

[ltl/fb]

I am happy to cut them up and bake them or sautee them or anything like that. I just don't like fiddly fussing. On occasion, I have been told I'm not a patient person.

[Sparklehorse]

Originally Posted by ltl/fb

Any ideas for fresh figs other than cutting in half, smushing the middle in a little or scooping a tiny bit out, plopping in a little goat cheese and broiling?

Note that the above represents the highest level of fussiness I will deal with with. Totally not into anything that would require toothpicks and/or wrapping and/or carefully hollowing out the middle of the fig while keeping it basically whole and injecting some substance into it.

I don't know if this will meet your requirements but I recently made a DEElishious salad from Chez Panisse Vegetables. It involved bitter greens (I cooked them because my goal was to render a large head of curley escarole into one meal) with shallots and a vinaigrette. Generally, the pairing of the figs with a bitter green was delicious. If you want me to post a recipe, I'd be glad to.

[ltl/fb]

Originally Posted by Sparklehorse

I don't know if this will meet your requirements but I recently made a DEElishious salad from Chez Panisse Vegetables. It involved bitter greens (I cooked them because my goal was to render a large head of curley escarole into one meal) with shallots and a vinaigrette. Generally, the pairing of the figs with a bitter green was delicious. If you want me to post a recipe, I'd be glad to.

That sounds fantastic, unless you had to separate out tendrils of the curly escarole and pare the shallots into slivers and then put five tendrils of escarole and three slivers of shallot into each of 10 figs, inserting through the cut you made removing the stem and being careful not to split the fig open.

Yay! If you don't feel like typing it out, I got my sister that cookbook for Xmas and I can force her to read me the recipe over the phone.

[Sparklehorse]

Originally Posted by ltl/fb

That sounds fantastic, unless you had to separate out tendrils of the curly escarole and pare the shallots into slivers and then put five tendrils of escarole and three slivers of shallot into each of 10 figs, inserting through the cut you made removing the stem and being careful not to split the fig open.

Yay! If you don't feel like typing it out, I got my sister that cookbook for Xmas and I can force her to read me the recipe over the phone.

I took two adjoining recipes and morphed them together to suit my purposes. The only fussy step was toasting walnuts and then rubbing the skins off. Obviously, you can just toast and not rub.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Toast 3/4 cup of walnuts in a shallow dish for 5-8 minutes. Cool and rub any excess skin off the walnuts -- between your hands or in a towel.

Thoroughly wash and dry some curly endive. Chop coarsely.

Make a vinaigrette with balsamic vinegar, some finely mashed garlic, salt, and olive oil.

Using 12 figs, take 6 and dice finely. Quarter the other six and reserve separately.

Slice sweet young red onions very thin, and in a large saute pan, saute it very quickly in a little olive oil until limp and a little browned. Add the curly endive and the vinaigrette and toss quickly over the heat until the endive is just starting to wilt.

Add chopped figs and stir to incorporate. Top with quartered figs and serve.

[ltl/fb]

Originally Posted by Sparklehorse

I took two adjoining recipes and morphed them together to suit my purposes. The only fussy step was toasting walnuts and then rubbing the skins off. Obviously, you can just toast and not rub.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Toast 3/4 cup of walnuts in a shallow dish for 5-8 minutes. Cool and rub any excess skin off the walnuts -- between your hands or in a towel.

Thoroughly wash and dry some curly endive. Chop coarsely.

Make a vinaigrette with balsamic vinegar, some finely mashed garlic, salt, and olive oil.

Using 12 figs, take 6 and dice finely. Quarter the other six and reserve separately.

Slice sweet young red onions very thin, and in a large saute pan, saute it very quickly in a little olive oil until limp and a little browned. Add the curly endive and the vinaigrette and toss quickly over the heat until the endive is just starting to wilt.

Add chopped figs and stir to incorporate. Top with quartered figs and serve.

That sounds awesome. I might use some other bitter green in place of curly endive . . . Yum!

[Adder]

Originally Posted by ltl/fb

That sounds awesome. I might use some other bitter green in place of curly endive . . . Yum!

Delicious but completely unhealty, copied from a local taps restaurant, figs wrapped in bacon and deep dried. Totally delicious.

[ltl/fb]

Originally Posted by Adder

Delicious but completely unhealty, copied from a local taps restaurant, figs wrapped in bacon and deep dried. Totally delicious.

I want credit for the restraint I am showing right this very second.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by ltl/fb

Any ideas for fresh figs other than cutting in half, smushing the middle in a little or scooping a tiny bit out, plopping in a little goat cheese and broiling?

Note that the above represents the highest level of fussiness I will deal with with. Totally not into anything that would require toothpicks and/or wrapping and/or carefully hollowing out the middle of the fig while keeping it basically whole and injecting some substance into it.

buy a young pig. feed the figs and any other kitchen scraps to the pig for two years. kill the pig and smoke the thing. fry the bacon and cure the ham. mmmmmm.

[Fugee]

Originally Posted by ltl/fb

I want credit for the restraint I am showing right this very second.

Two of the new food items at the Minnesota State Fair are (1) a 1/3 lb slice of bacon fried and carmelized with maple syrup, served on a stick (naturally) with dipping sauces and (2) chocolate-covered crisp-fried bacon pieces. I'm going to the fair this weekend and will try them in your honor.

BTW, do fresh figs taste better than the figgy stuff in Fig Newtons? I'm not fond of them so have never wanted to try figs.

[ltl/fb]

Originally Posted by Fugee

Two of the new food items at the Minnesota State Fair are (1) a 1/3 lb slice of bacon fried and carmelized with maple syrup, served on a stick (naturally) with dipping sauces and (2) chocolate-covered crisp-fried bacon pieces. I'm going to the fair this weekend and will try them in your honor.

BTW, do fresh figs taste better than the figgy stuff in Fig Newtons? I'm not fond of them so have never wanted to try figs.

I think they taste better -- I am not a huge Fig Newton fan, but I do sometimes like dried figs. I like fresh ones better. You should try a fresh one! It certainly won't hurt you.


Mmmmmm, bacon.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Fugee

BTW, do fresh figs taste better than the figgy stuff in Fig Newtons? I'm not fond of them so have never wanted to try figs.

here's how good fresh figs are: I grew up around Italian immigrants who would dig a hole in late March and plant their fig tree, let it produce, eat fresh figs, then in like November dig the whole tree out and wrap it and drag it into their garage. you know the swarthy are lazt right? if the things weren't great why all that work?

[Cletus Miller]

Originally Posted by Adder

Delicious but completely unhealty, copied from a local taps restaurant, figs wrapped in bacon and deep dried. Totally delicious.

Well, that's similar to my suggestion, but she said "Totally not into anything that would require ... wrapping". But at least my suggestion doesn't include a fryer, too--roasted bacon-wrapped figs only require a baking sheet and an oven, but do require wrapping and possibly work better with toothpicks, too.

[Flinty_McFlint]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

here's how good fresh figs are: I grew up around Italian immigrants who would dig a hole in late March and plant their fig tree, let it produce, eat fresh figs, then in like November dig the whole tree out and wrap it and drag it into their garage. you know the swarthy are lazt right? if the things weren't great why all that work?

My guess is because they didn't have much formal edumacation. Was that the right answer?

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally Posted by Flinty_McFlint

My guess is because they didn't have much formal edumacation. Was that the right answer?

Pino comes home from school and says, "Papa, Papa, today the teacher asked the class who could count to twenty and the other boys could only go to 12, but I knew all the numbers!" Papa says, "Very good, Pino! And do you know why you're so smart? It's because we are Italiano!"

Pino comes home from school the next day and says, "Papa, Papa, today we were playing in the schoolyard and throwing the ball and the other boys couldn't throw it to the fence, but I could!" And Papa says, "Very good, Pino! And do you know why you're so strong? It's because we are Italiano!"

Pino comes home from school the next day and says, "Papa, Papa, today after school the boys were all showing their weiners, and the other boys' were all very small, but mine was very big. Is that because we are Italiano?" And Papa says, "No, Pino, it's because you're 22."

[Sidd Finch]

Originally Posted by Fugee

Two of the new food items at the Minnesota State Fair are (1) a 1/3 lb slice of bacon fried and carmelized with maple syrup, served on a stick (naturally) with dipping sauces and (2) chocolate-covered crisp-fried bacon pieces. I'm going to the fair this weekend and will try them in your honor.

BTW, do fresh figs taste better than the figgy stuff in Fig Newtons? I'm not fond of them so have never wanted to try figs.

Fresh figs are infinitely better than the stuff in Fig Newtons, especially if you get them in the earlier part of summer and they are really really fresh and big.

But you have access to fried carmelized maple-syrupy bacon on a stick, so discussing any other food that you might eat seems pointless.